Variety’s Elite Showrunners Breakfast (PHOTOS)

Judd Apatow

Vince Gilligan

Armando Iannucci

Blair Breard

Julian Fellowes

Danny Zuker

Beau Willimon

Matthew Weiner

Steven Molaro

“When we did ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ there weren’t too many shows like that happening. We were kind of a reaction to other shows about teenagers where they were all beautiful. … People just looked at us like we were crazy all the time, to the point where we shot the finale three or four episodes before the last episode – think about how paranoid that is. So yes, there’s a part of me that’s very sad that we weren’t around when people supported ambitious storytelling (like today).”

“No white boards. I hate white boards. I have a pet peeve about them. With a dry-erase white board, if you’re playing Nerf football and someone goes long and you mash your shoulder against one, you lose all that work you did that week. Cork boards are much more durable. … That’s literally all I have to say.”

“We’re kind of cursed by the fact that we feel obliged that we’ve got to be funny. The trick, the challenge is just because we’re trying to be funny, we’re not belittling anything, and so we can perhaps take on bigger subjects in our comedy.”

“The form has changed. We’re allowed to do more creative things and go deeper. … In our first season of ‘Louie,’ we were doing very classic Louis sketch comedies. (Later), we were doing arcs and there was more depth and opportunity to explore themes under the banner of comedy.”

“When you kill a character, blimey! Then you know what it’s like to be accused of being a serial killer. It’s unbelievable.”

“There was a visceral thrill (in multicam, when something goes wrong) and then the writers huddle. We did an episode my first season on “Modern Family” and we were out on location and we had an emotional scene where nothing was working. We built a campfire and took a legal pad and found a new scene.”

“I’d like to dispense with the idea of episodes altogether. Just have 13 hours, and the audience chooses when it wants to stop and start again. … I think as the technology (changes) over the next five years, you’ll see (the definition of an episode change).”

I’m all for anything that is interesting and new. But it’s all broken down into increments of what’s going to happen. What’s going to happen this year, and what’s going to happen in the next scene. … You look at ‘Breaking Bad,’ and one of the things that I talk to Vince about that always blows to me is that the premise would seem to be so incredibly limited. But the way that it is drawn out (tension, etc.) is so very different than what’s going to happen to Walter.

“Those moments when you are huddled up are the closest to sports we get. Rewriting a whole scene while huddled up – it’s terrifying.”